In recent years, an amount of data used by companies and individuals is rapidly increasing. Therefore, a storage system that connects storage devices (hereinafter, also described as storage subsystems) and host computers through switches and hubs and that uses a technique, such as SAN (Storage Area Network) or NAS (Network Attached Storage), capable of flexible data management is widely used.
Furthermore, in recent years, reduction in the operation cost of the storage system (also referred to as a computer system) is an important issue along with the complication of the storage system. An example of a method for solving the issue includes a method of comprehensively managing the configuration of the storage system, such as the storage subsystems, the host computers, the switches, and the hubs, by management software. An example of such a method includes a method disclosed in Patent Literature 1. The manager of the storage system can use the technique to perform a management operation, such as referring to the linkage of storage resources from a plurality of storage subsystems to a plurality of host computers or allocating a new resource from a storage subsystem to a host computer, based on a single piece of management software. According to the technique, the manager can also comprehensively manage the storage system including the storage subsystems, the host computers, the switches, the hubs, and the like, based on a single piece of management software.